Today I planted two cacao trees in an area where we used to build compost piles. The trees love this because the soil is already charged up with what plants crave. All of the mature cacao trees are starting to flower now. Each tree can produce between 5000 to 10000 tiny flowers but only 50 to 80 of them will turn into cacao pods. It takes about 5 months from flowering for a cacao pod to fully develop and ripen. That means the next big harvest will start around November.
Originally posted on 2021-06-06, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.